


Huan Versus Thu: An Adaptation of Beren's Rescue from Sauron's Dungeon

by DefiantCandle17



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Better ask Draugluin to check in on them after we capture the princess, Better send Draugluin and hope for the best, Doing my head in, Draugluin - Freeform, F/M, Holy shit it is, Hopefully this is about as exciting as this evening is gonna get, Huan - Freeform, Huan the Valinor Warhound vs Thu the Sorceror and Lieutenant of Morgoth, Huan the badass, I'm sure its fine, Luthien - Freeform, Morgoth's gonna make me filthy rich for bringing her to him, Now back to my reading, Really don't want to come down there, Really hope that girl stops singing soon, Really really don't, Sauron - Freeform, Speaking of exciting, Thu - Freeform, Thu is pissed, Wait is that Luthien of Melian the Maiar and Thingol?, What happened to the werewolf who was executing my prisoners one by one, Winner Take All
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-11-23 20:14:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20895464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DefiantCandle17/pseuds/DefiantCandle17
Summary: Thu's quiet evening read is interrupted when an elvish girl begins singing outside of his isle fortress of Tol-in-Gaurhoth, and the wolfhound who accompanies her persistently slays every wolf he sends out to silence the singing. When he realises that the girl is Luthien, he decides to capture her and bring her to his master Morgoth. Now how to deal with that wolfhound of hers...A semi-dark, semi-humourous and wholly epic adaptation of how the sorcerer the right hand of Morgoth, who would one day forge the One Ring lost his fortress to a singing elvish girl and her shaggy wolfhound.





	1. Thu and the Elvish Girl who interrupted his Pleasant Evening Read.

Thu resented distractions.

While wisely, he considered the girl in the blue dress and the huge wolfhound she had apparently acquired as a pet and an ally a threat, as he considered any who approached his fortress in Tol-in-Gaurhoth, he had merely deemed the little upstart girl singing outside his lair to be a nuisance.

So naturally, as Thu normally responded to such things he regarded as nuisances, he sent out a wolf to rip out the wolfhound's throat and silence the girl to cease her melodious din. He had many to spare, and the tribulations seemed, at the time, hardly worth his personal involvement. It simply would not do for the master of his home to tend to rebels and upstarts protesting on his owned grounds himself, when he had his army of wolves and werewolves to attend to that need.

He had his prisoners to torment, arcane tomes to study on enchantment and the nuances of forging weapons of war, and, on occasion, disguising himself as creatures of small demeanour and infiltrating societies and lands and kings to study the art of politics and charisma, watching the nuances of human and elvish behaviour on how the fair won over the loyalty of kin and foe alike. His master did not deem such pursuits worthwhile, but lacking in the sheer power of his master and Valar God as one of the Ainur, Thu deemed it only prudent to look to other means of survival and acquiring one's goals other than brute force.

Ripping one's foes apart with tooth and claw, by fist and boot, by mace or sword or world-breaking sorcery always held a special place in the Ainur's heart. The raw thrill, the satiation of his bloodlust at bathing in the blood of his enemies, when he emerged on them in his true, god-demon form and rending them asunder would always be a sensation Thu desired. It was the simplest, purest and most direct means of exercising one's unquestionable right of dominion.

But Thu had been beaten before. And few and far as those defeats of his had been, such defeats left behind a raging, persistent blaze of fear that burned coldly in his heart. He could not hope to match his master Morgoth, not that he wanted to, but he could not challenge the Valar, and while few existed that could challenge his own might, Thu feared defeat like the distant perpetual threat that awakened in him a sense of doom no Maiar should ever experience.

So, when Thu was not attending to the desires of his master, and leading his armies and playing his part in the key victories of Morgoth the dark knight, holder of three of the immortal Silmarillion gems, and garbed in full black iron plate mail to shield his burned but powerful form, he endeavoured to educate himself further of the realm of Arda, and learn how potentially, he could seize advantage of every scenario and situation to his sole benefit. Shapeshifting, alchemy, transmutation, spell-weaving, concealment, domination of the mind, were all strategies Thu prided himself on collecting and mastering, if not at least learning to a satisfactory degree as befits a prestigious and adaptable dark lord such as he. If he could not succeed with one strategy, he would employ another. And in the moments where he was not in battle serving his master, mastering the forces of darkness, torturing elves to forge new legions of orcs under his command and training Balrogs in the way of the sword and the whip, he sought to advance his knowledge and increase to his revenue, the numerous forms of knowledge to employ in the field of battle and subterfuge.

Thu's quiet read for the evening was a whimsical book on the art of mind and thought transfer to inanimate objects, in which the writer, a proud sorcerer, in his investigation of the Higher Mysteries, inadvertently discovered transference by binding his consciousness into a single golden bracelet, and could only communicate his thoughts if it was worn by an unwitting accomplice. Once one got past the griping and the moaning over how the mournful sorcerer missed his family and hugging his children and how such feats in magic should never grasped and how there were some things that were allowed to be forgotten as the cost was too great and the eternal suffering one brought upon oneself would never be worth the benefits of such arcane forbidden knowledge- tedious, trivial, dull- the details of such mysterious, mentally grasping and logic engaging feats of magical concentration, that the sorcerer eventually disclosed through the hand of a high-born lady proved to be quite intriguing.

Thu would have enjoyed such further reading, being in the process of skimming over another segment of the sorcerer bemoaning his ill luck in how he missed the feel of his faithful hound's ears under his fingers, actually so immersed in his reading that he could mentally shift aside the bloody din of that brat singing outside his fortress, when he heard what sounded like a distant splash coming from the front of his fortress.

His fortress, fortified from the back by being built into the side of a deep ravine, by which a roaring waterfall flowed through the hills in which it was built, was chiefly accessible by a long bridge, wide enough for twenty men to walk abreast, that crossed the span of the gap between his Isle and the main land. The splash he had just heard came from the river flowing underneath.

And the girl was still singing.

Using the silk red tassel of the tome to bookmark the page, his irritation rising and compounded by the author's incessant adoration of his faithful hound, a word he hoped would not further be mentioned or relate to any further causes of stress for the evening, Thu removed himself from his desk, strode the length of his bedroom out to the balcony overlooking the bridge and chanced a glance down at the sole two occupants standing at the opposite end. His long black hair whipped about him as he set his piercing gaze that glowed with an inner ether down upon the singing girl below him.

The girl was wearing a dark cloak above her blue, form-hugging dress that flowed loosely about her legs. From here, he could see that her hair was fair brunette, and her form slight and lithely. Beside her, the shaggy mongrel, towering over her in his horse-sized form stood panting, dark liquid dripping from his jaws agape.

And the wolf he sent out was nowhere to be seen. But where - there!

He saw it. The lifeless, bloody body of his wolf drifting to his left, flowing down the stream to crack and collect in the rapids and waterfalls further down the lake.

_Ah._

So this wolfhound was strong enough to throw one of his wolves bodily off the bridge and into the stream bellow.

_Well then._

Thu sent out a command through his tendril of influence to send out another wolf. A larger one perhaps.

As he did, he observed as the wolfhound, with a shaggy grey pelt and a thinly haired tail, sporting on his head down folded ears, a sickening image of evolved domesticity and enslavement by elfkind if ever there was one, looked to the woman, then bounded off into the shadows.

_I see._

_Well then, let us hope my next wolf isn't so stupid as to merely go for the girl without sniffing the area first for an elvish mutt._

Thu turned and strode back to his table upon which he had left his book.

The singing still maintained, but above the noise, Thu heard with pride the scrape of claws and the padding of feet fast, bounding across the cobbles of his bridge. He softly smiled to himself. The little game would be over soon.

He had just reached his chair when he heard the muffled bark of a great hound, the snarl cut short by a whimper as something wet and hard crunched as if crushed by a great blow was heard, then the gentle whoosh of wind as something sped through the air.

And then another splash.

And the girl continued to sing.

Thu wanted to spend the rest of his evening reading.

Thu really did not want to leave the comfort of his desk and his still warm chair.

Thu really, really did not want to waste his evening gawking like a crotchety old man shaking his cane and telling the intruding pests to leave his property, lest he release the hounds.

But years of serving the wise and powerful Melkor had ingrained in him a sense of vigilance as well as caution, and while Thu was beginning to feel enough irritation now that crushing one of his lackey's skulls in his gauntlets might just be the only reprieve, he knew better than to simply ignore anything that persisted longer than five minutes outside of his isle fortress.

Anything that endured longer than that time was troublesome.

Anything that endured even longer than that was to be considered something that demanded his attention.

And anything that demanded his attention was to be deemed a very serious threat that would hinder his plans with their immediate nature and proximity.

Thu sent out a command for a fast wolf to silence the girl, waited until he heard the padding of the wolf's paws, speeding across the bridge faster now than the large one, and waited.

The footsteps padded further away, meaning it was getting closer to the girl. Perhaps if it was fast enough, it would pounce on the girl before the wolfhound reached it.

He waited, anticipating the amusing moment when the girl's din would briefly and cruelly punctuated by a short, shrill scream, the snarl of the wolf as its jaws fastened on her pretty little neck, and then silence. Maybe he would send out a few of his wolves to deal with the hound while it grieved for the slight little thing it had allowed to wonder so stupidly into his territory.

Ah yes, here it comes, the snarl of the wolf and-

Thwo-bam! The sound of a huge body smashing into the bridge, the girl still singing, unfazed apparently and unwavering in her tone and meandering song as the fast wolf yelped and snapped at whatever was pinning it, the familiar sound of jaws crushing cartilage and bone and then

_Crunch._

_Fwoosh._

_Splash._

Thu did not need to look out of his window to piece together what had happened.

The fast wolf had failed. The wolfhound had prevailed yet again-

And the girl was still…infernally…singing.

Thu was not one to express concern, but he pressed his hands together as if in prayer and to his lips.

He was not concerned. The Right Hand and Lieutenant of Morgoth the Master of Darkness was never concerned.

He was troubled and irritated and if that girl didn't stop singing and his wolves didn't kill her and that annoyingly persevering hound soon enough he would-

_Wolves! Ah…the delightful plural form which denoted the many instead of the singular! Yes…that would do it!_

_I'll simply send some of my wolves out in force, and let a pack deal with the girl and the dog._

_Why oh why would I be so short-sighted as to just send them one at a time and waste a good night's evening in stress and anxiety mourning over lost troops when I could easily crush the nuisance in one fell swoop._

Thu thanked his corrupted stars that Morgoth was not here to chastise him for employing so amateur a defence strategy as this.

Then he went to work.

He sent out a summoning call, and ordered that Draugluin, his lord of wolves and werewolves, be ready to swiftly summon and send forth another wave, should, by some wretched Eru damned miracle the wolfhound survive the first one.

Seven wolves ran pell-mell across the bridge, barking and baying in their terrible din as they raced towards the singing girl.

Thu decided that perhaps, if he indulged the sight of the girl being torn to pieces along with her faithful hound, he would put his mind to rest and resume his quiet evening's ring. Then sleep to the sound of his hounds chewing and fighting over their bones picked clean while another member of Beren and Felagund's commendably brave but astonishingly stupid war band was torn to pieces by his executioner werewolf.

Come to think of it, the executioner hadn't been heard of for some time now, nor had he reported back to him with news as to the latest victim he had killed. It really should be the elven king Felagund or the wretched man thing Beren, Son of Barahir left down there by now. He made a note to ask Draugluin to check on the prisoners once this business was concluded.

Thu went to the window.

Sure enough, a company of seven wolves of varying shades of pitch, auburn and steel were bounding across the bridge towards the girl.

Seven. The wolfhound would struggle against at least three alone, while four pulled down the girl and silenced her for good.

The girl continued to sing, and something about the way she did rang in the wrong places inside Thu's bones. Like the very song and the words, ancient yet familiar to him, were working to undo the very forces that held him together.

Troubling…

The wolves reached the girl, but the nature of the narrow bridge soon made Thu realise that wide as it was, it could only accommodate three of the wolves when they needed room to run at full length.

Then one broke formation and picked up speed towards the girl.

Thu waited with bated breath.

The lead wolf leapt.

A grey blur bounded out of the shadows that obscured the land beyond the bridge.

The wolfhound, compared to the wolf, was huge, and easily held the weight advantage as it barrelled into the wolf and set his jaws against his throat.

The other two snarled and ran straight at him.

With a snap of his bloody jaws, the wolfhound moved with unnatural speed for its lanky size and seized another wolf by the top of its throat. Then it slammed the wolf's body against the third, driving it against the slow wall of the bridge. When the body fell, a bloody smear remained.

Still holding the now limp second wolf, the wolfhound spun, turned and flung the corpse towards the advancing four wolves.

Three leapt in time and cleared the spinning corpse. The fourth didn't. The impact sent it flying a good quarter span of the bridge and left it there, struggling under the weight of its brutally slain kin.

The remaining three wolves came at the wolfhound.

The wolfhound crouched on his haunches and leapt.

Presenting his huge body as a wall, the wolfhound blocked and slammed the centre and right most wolf back, sending them tumbling on their rumps. The third and left most werewolf didn't get the chance to escape as the huge jaws bore down on his neck and bit down hard. Thu heard the crunch of the wolf's neck breaking even from his balcony.

The wolf was then thrown fully off the bridge, spiralling lifelessly towards the streaming river below.

By the time it splashed into the water, the wolfhound was already turning to meet the two remaining wolves as they recovered and bounded towards him.

One moment the wolfhound was before them, then it was between them, and his jaws had opened and fastened hard on the left hindleg of the wolf on his left. Then with the same supernatural speed it possessed, it swung the wolf into the opposite side of the low wall, then without stopping, grabbed the third wolf that barely managed to get past it by its leg, and flung him back, sending him across the length of the bridge to smash so hard against the wall of his fortress that Thu felt it from up inside his chambers.

The wolf fell away from the wall, and tumbled over the precipitating rocks down into the stream below.

The wolfhound then walked towards the last wolf. It had managed to dislodge itself of its comrade's corpse, and for a moment, hesitated before the larger wolfhound advancing towards it with blood stained jaws.

Then it remembered who it was serving and the consequences of failure. It growled at the wolfhound padding towards him, its ears pulled back in an aggressive gesture and leapt.

The wolfhound intercepted the lunge, fastened his jaws on the underside of his throat, lifted and slammed the wolf into the bridge so brutally that dust stirred up from the wake of its fall. The wolf twitched once, then was no more. Then the wolfhound threw the corpse off the bridge with a twist of his neck and it sailed into the river. Then he did so with the rest of the remaining corpses. One by one, his disposed soldiers were flung limply off the side to land in the streams and float away for the Crebain to feast on further down the river.

Strictly following under empirical observation, Thu had reached the summary conclusion that this was no ordinary wolfhound. He was more curious now than irritated, which was a far more preferable state to be in than the first.

Then he looked at the girl, and was considering uttering a curse with the intention of making her blind, mute and dumb, when he detected it.

The currents of power coming from her song that was aggravating his spirit. They weren't simply annoying. It was power itself.

Divine power.

Power of…the old songs…

Thu squinted as he scrutinised the intruder, as the loyal wolfhound returned to her side and stayed there this time.

The girl…

She was of elf descent, Thu realised and of…

Thu's heart seized in horror in his chest as he comprehended the other half. That aura about the girl was unmistakable. Obscure in its ethereal substance, in its constant meandering rhyme, but undeniable in the telling, thanks of course to the recognition of his own aura and the suffocating darkness emulated by his master.

The girl was half Maiar.

And not just any half-maiar….

But of Doriathian origin.

Thu's eyes widened in shock as he realised just who exactly was singing in front of his fortress.

Luthien of Thingol, king of Doriath, and of Melian the Maia.

The fairest maiden in all of Arda. Her beauty known far and wide, in spite of Thingol's vain efforts to protect her, whispered even in the lowest dredges of society and babbled about by madmen in abbatoirs. Luthien, the most beautiful woman in the known world.

And she was now right here in his grasp. She may as well have come knocking on his door and invited herself into his clutches.

Now this…has placed an unexpectedly providential turn of events for this troublesome evening.

If Morgoth were to discover that he, Thu, had personally delivered to him one of the fairest women of the land, one that was half Maiar and of elven blood…the possibilities as to how generous his reward would be were endless.

Why indeed was such a precious little flower, so vital and innocent and powerful so far from the sanctity of her home, he puzzled to know.

"A!" He mused to himself. "Little Luthien! What brought the foolish fly to web unsought?"

It didn't matter for now. He would find out once he questioned her.

"Morgoth! A great and rich reward to me thou wilt owe," He grinned fiendishly to himself. "…when to thy hoard this jewel is added."

Perhaps one of the Silmarillion from his iron crown itself…perhaps the secret to immortality…perhaps a glimpse at the higher mysteries…

Limitless…endless…Morgoth, the worthy dark master of all he laid eyes on…his reward.

But how indeed to secure her without bloodshed. His wolf's ire would be now at its zenith at the girl whose hound had slain so many of their kin now…

Perhaps.

"_Draugluin."_

A moment of silence. Then through their tendril.

"_I hear and obey, Master Gorthour." _Growled the Lord of Werewolves solemnly.

Gorthaur the Cruel. Another name for him.

Draugluin was the old lord of wolves, who sired the werewolves of Angband. Experience had taught the wolf caution as well as wiliness, and he was the strongest out of all the werewolves.

The heightened strength of the werewolf would be more than sufficient to slay the enchanted wolfhound making a laughing-stock of his wolf legions.

So with that in mind, Thu decided to appoint Draugluin for the capture and delivery of the girl to his dungeon. Once he had completed his inspection of the girl to ensure that she was in sufficient condition that which would please the Master, he would then set off to personally deliver the elf into the hands of the Dark Lord himself. Morgoth would be very, very pleased.

"Draugluin, lord of wolves, Sire of the Angband legions. Go forth in my name and bring the girl to me. Slay the Wolfhound. He is under some fell enchantment that grants him terrible strength. Do not underestimate him. Should the girl die in your arms or in our captivity, I will see to it that Morgoth holds you personally responsible for her demise. Now go!"

"As you command, so I obey. It will be done."

And with that, the tendril that connected their minds diminished, and Thu glowed with pride as he heard the terrible howl of his chief of werewolves, announcing his presence with his terrible night song. The baying of hounds dark and terrible for blood. The hound of Morgoth.

_Perhaps I should have been more specific in my instruction._ Thu thought to himself. Draugluin did not earn his title as Lord of Wolves simply out of good breeding or royalty.

_Ah well. If the girl loses a limb trying to escape him, Morgoth would understand. Elves were a lively sort and made persistently difficult hostages. She may even prove more trouble than she is worth if she were whole._

And upon the matter, he smoothed down his black robe shrouding over a rich golden gown underneath, sat back down in his desk, pulled the tassel to open the tome to his desired page, licked his finger and turned over the leaf.

_Oh that damned hound again. _Thu thought, regarding the author's insistence on mourning over his dog who he could never play with again. _Would it occur to you that this story is about the means of obtaining immortality through enchantment, the sacrifice of innocence to appease the dark powers, and not the merits of some mangy mongrel?_

Thu really hoped he wouldn't have to deal anymore with hounds following tonight.

He turned the page and resumed reading, waited for the singing of the elvish girl to turn to blood-curdling screams, attuned his gaze to the spidery text and resumed his reading.


	2. Thu Learns of The Elf Girl's Companion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Thu is interrupted yet again and decides to take matters in his own hands, while learning crucial information on his way down to confront Huan and Luthien.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back again!  
This is a short chapter but it serves to set up the evil Thu's mindset and build up towards Chapter 3. I've used dialogue from Beren and Luthien and added more dialogue to flesh out the scene.  
Thu is getting angry, and there will be reference to Beren and Luthien as well as the Silmarillion. But now that he is armed with knowledge, he will use it to his malicious ends, and twist the truth in places in his attempt to ensnare Luthien and bring her to his master.  
Strong violence, language and threat through out!  
Enjoy

Thu resented interruptions.

So when a series of heavy pounding knocks, hard enough to make his chamber doors rattle interrupts his captivating reading, casting him out of the pleasures of his book and into the dull mundane realm in which he had now come to despise fully because Luthien was still bloody singing, which meant that Draugluin, his best soldier had failed in the one task he was assigned to do, Thu’s wroth was immediately stoked. Oil had been cast on the dying embers of his building ire and now, ignited, Thu’s chest was a volcanic furnace, broiling and seething with magma and billowing smoke.

Thu slammed his book shut, all concerns about bookmarking his progress forgotten. Unless his ears were simply still ringing from the nauseatingly harmonic and heavenly chime of Luthien’s voice, Thu desperately hoped that Draugluin was knocking on his door to present him with Luthien held in one hand, alive and unspoilt and the dripping wolfhound’s head in the other.

Thu gripped the handles of his door, turned and wrenched them apart.

Draugluin was there.

In his werewolf form, clad in his impressive suit of armour, of a scaled vest decorated with skull-like faces, and armed with lobster plated armour that covered his shoulders and legs, baring his muscular, blue-tinged hide and limbs to the world, Draugluin was the image of bestial fury and unrepentant savagery.

Once a Maiar like Thu, Draugluin was handpicked by Morgoth himself to be the Lord of the Werewolves in Angband, and the sire for all werewolves in Middle Earth. All werewolves, save for his truly, owed their lineage to him. Dark creatures of the night, an unholy union of man thing and wolf, with long arms holding hands with curved black claws and double-jointed hind-legs that bore them on two feet as well as four, merged to make the ultimate killing machine, capable of intelligence and cunning, and unrestrained ferocity, driven by bloodlust, monsters and devout worshippers of carnage and destruction until they waded in blood. Draugluin was the Lord of Thu’s werewolves, and under his command, all elves in Beleriand were at the mercy of the raids of the werewolf armies, that plagued the lands and butchered in the name of Morgoth.

Indeed, Draugluin, standing before Thu in full armour, his powerful open jaws agape and showing yellowy canines over a foot long, was the right choice for his master to send out and instill terror in the hearts of elves in the dark Valar god’s name.

But he did not have Luthien in his hand.

Nor did he have the freshly severed head of that unnaturally strong wolfhound in his hands.

What he did have, was a serious of gruesome mutilations, fresh and bloody in the brazier light outside his chambers. Almost everywhere uncovered by his armour was torn, scratched and eviscerated by what Thu recognised as savage bite marks from gripping, tearing jaws. His armour appeared almost worst off, and while it didn’t bleed like Draugluin’s flesh, it was almost shredded to threads, raked by dull claws and disfigured by jaws that bit deep.

Half of his right ear was torn off, and as Draugluin panted before him, blood trickled freshly, pouring from a vicious bite mark to the left side of his neck. Blackened and glistening, a blodge of bone and red in the flickering light of the brazer outside.

“Huh…huh…Huh…” Draugluin panted. _No…wait…he was trying to speak!_

“Out with it, Lord of Wolves, out with it!” Thu demanded, disliking the sense of panic arising within him at the sudden realisation of what had just happened and the grim fate that befell his lord of wolves.

“Huh…Huan…is there….” Draugluin spoke with a rumble in his weary, exhausted voice.

The werewolf’s red eyes, made redder by the vessels forking into his pupils rolled up in his head, and he pitched forward, falling flatly on his front with a great crash of his mighty body and the clang of flame-forged armour.

Draugluin breathed his last, as blood began to pool around him, and then he was still. His red eyes glazed over…and saw nothing.

In the silence that followed, save for the scuff of the nervous wolves and werewolves who watched anxiously from the shadows, Thu stared down at the lifeless body of Draugluin as he mulled over what his last words were.

Huan…

Huan…

Huan…

Soon recognition took root, and fear, once again, took hold of Thu’s heart.

Huan. The Wolfhound. One of the hunting dogs of Orome, the Huntsman God. Given to Celegorm, one of the sons of Feanor.

He who ran and fought without tiring. Unstoppable in battle. Relentless in his pursuit. Blessed by the Valar with supernatural powers.

Skin that was impervious to most forms of weaponry wielded by man or beast.

Possessed the gift of three moments of speech.

Superior strength to most wolves and wolfhounds, if not one of the strongest of all hounds in Arda.

Huan the Hound of Valinor was outside of his fortress, slaying his wolves, and aiding the demi-goddess and elf Luthien in her bid to invade his fortress.

And now he has just slain Draugluin.

The wind, nay, the drift of current of Luthien’s mesmeric, stingingly beautiful voice, swept through his room, through his fortress with a thrum of power that simply shook the place, so powerful that he felt the impact in his feet.

Thu heard the crack in the ceiling, and turned to see-

-A piece of the ceiling, black limestone, trailing dust as it fell, spiralling-

-and landed with a brief splash in his goblet of wine.

Thu turned and walked to his desk, and peered over the rim of the cup.

Floating in the red, the piece of his ceiling floated like an ugly protrusion of charcoal bone in red gore, as it bobbed up and down in his red wine. Slashes of soaking red soaked into his tablecloth where he had laid his book to read.

Thu blinked.

Took the moment to carefully process and swallow the bitter reality that confronted him now.

Luthien was not just singing to rattle his spirits or demoralise him with her power.

She was actively trying to bring down his fortress on his and his forces heads.

Thu allowed only one of his eyelids to twitch, not simply because he was tired. But any more of an expression of his fury and he would quite literally do Luthien’s job for her by destroying his own room in an outburst of power.

Luthien…sought to make a fool of him. By bringing her wretched hound, and using her Valar-cursed magic to destroy his fortress, and disable his foothold in Beleriand.

Thu breathed, gathered his anger deep inside him, let it well, and grow and form and pustulate and merge and twist inside him, drawing out the light of the candle, diminishing its heat by draining its very essence of light. His fingers dug into his palms, spearing into the flesh, cutting deep to pierce flesh, tendon, bone, blood.

_How…dare….she…_

_How…._

He felt the light of the ether diminish in his eyes, his Maiar light warp to accommodate the darkness welling in his soul.

_Dare…_

The candle shrank, flickered, then simply snuffed out. Smoke remained where the flame once stood.

_She…_

And for a time, Thu felt he would simply be given over to his choking, blinding, immobilising rage.

And then he realised the solution to his problem. His problem that prevented him from enjoying his pleasant, evening read.

_If one was troubled by pests, you didn’t send out spiders and wait for them to weave webs._

_You crush them under the palm of your hand right there and then._

And with that moment of thought, all became abundantly, transparently clear in what Thu needed to do.

His mind turned to his vast store of information. And his memory of learning of the warhounds of Orome…of his favourite Huan, whom his master Morgoth had bade him beware of.

_“Only by the greatest of wolves, shalt Huan be slain, my servant Sauron. He is armed with the power of the Valar in mongrel form, and though garbed in mortal hound hide, is as protected by prophecy as he will be condemned to it. No other being, save the appointed dark wolf who was spoken of, shall be granted permission by the fates to lay his poisoned fangs upon the flesh of Huan, and rend his flesh, and tear his throat. Only the strongest of wolves, Sauron. Beware, and do not toy with fate, for Eru has cursed it to oppose our fortune if we do not remain to our lowly shadowy role, and rot Arda from within. Such as it is your purpose, as it is mine…”_

_The strongest of wolves…_

_Well then…_

Thu smiled, a devious, impish, malevolent smile crossed his features.

The candle relit, and marred his grinning pale, handsome face with shadows.

_Well, well, well, indeed…_

_The strongest of wolves, thou sayeth, Master._

_Mayhaps you forget that I alone was critical in your successes and your plans coming to fruition. The growing of your armies, the consolidation of your dark powers, the leading of your forces, the enforcer of your will incarnate?_

_Maybe I alone, should be as you are, oh master, and stride forth to seize my own mantle of power, in so doing, that I may become in likeness to you, mightiest of the Valar, strongest of the Ainur, and the true lord of Middle Earth._

_And I will prove myself to you, my lord, by acting on prophecy, and slay the cur outside my door, and have him and Beleriand suffer the penance of their defiance, and their rebellion a thousandfold, to repay them in kindness for defying my…our will…my master._

Wrath was in his lungs, and his spirits soared with the pride he felt, in anticipation to the greater feast it would sup on once Morgoth received word of his mighty black hearted deed.

“Before the mightiest he shall fall,” Thu spoke, and began to pool his energy, emptying it into the shape of his first and only form he would need take. “before the mightiest wolf of all.”

And with that, his mind was made.

He turned and began to walk out of his chambers, stepping over Draugluin’s corpse. The rest can have him. Let his flesh feed their strength so that some profit came of his failure.

He moved past the wolves, and their blinking eyes, yellow gems in the dark, shrank back in his approach, and he reached the steps and began to descend them, spiralling down to the base of his tower.

In his journey, the wolves and werewolves bickered amongst each other until they marked his approach, and all quarrel and growls ceased, and they bowed their heads and trembled in fear at his approach. Amongst them, he heard many whispers, varied in volume and length, but all spoke of the same thing.

“Draugluin is dead…yes….the lord of werewolves is dead…who’s gonna protect the master and us now? Draugluin is dead…Huan bloody well got him, he did.”

“No, you fool…the master is the true lord of werewolves. Draugluin was his second, but Thu became our master for assuming our form and many others. Now be quiet and bow, or the master will smite ye.”

In his involvement, his personal intervention, the wolves feared just as well as for their own lives, just as their enemies feared theirs.

He swept past them in his black robed form, towering over them.

He was to the final corridor to the entrance hall, when a lowly, almost hairless werewolf, lean and gaunt approached him, ears drawn back and panting in exhaustion.

“Forgiveness, Lord, I, Ristle, beg but your ears for a moment.”

“Speak.” Thu permitted, not stopping as his footsteps echoed down the hallway.

“My lord.” The werewolf Ristle bowed obsequiously, lowly as he was, before he raised his diminutive head to speak.

“Fardred, our executer is slain. King Finrod Felagand of Nargothrond is slain, but he wrested himself from his chains, and slew Fardred by his hand, breaking his neck, before he succumbed to his wounds. The poison of Fardred’s fangs hath done their work, but Felagand’s will appeared the stronger.”

_How interesting. And a pity. _

“Beren lives, though he hath lost much of his sanity in his incarceration. He sings, my lord.”

Thu turned his head towards the wolf but a fraction. Another invitation for Ristle to speak.

“He sings of the North, master.” Ristle clarified. “Of great battles fought there by his people. Of actions and daring that would break the walls and stones of the greatest towers. He sings of the Burning Briar, the Silver Fire. Of the Seven Stars that Varda set to burn, of the blasphemy of light conquering darkness.”

Thu didn’t much care for the chest-beating glories of the primates below him, and was ready to dismiss him, when Ristle overstepped and spoke further.

“And he sings of a woman! A pretty elf he desires, milord. One whose dancing defies light and blessed with beauty…”

“The dreams of a man starved of his desires, indulging sin and wicked desire as his mind rots in barren prison.” Thu finished, uninterested in hearing more.

“And a voice like the song of a nightingale!” Ristle explained.

Thu was about to demonstrate why he does not mince words with the lowly folk who serve below him, when the word song came about in his mind.

_A song…._

Thu’s eyes widened as the revelation hit him.

Luthien…she wasn’t attacking his fortress out of some mad, deluded sentiment to drive him out…

And Beren…speaking of an elf with a beautiful singing voice…

_Ah…now...all is revealed…_

In Beren’s fevered dreams that Thu delighted in peering in to cast his own shadows of fear in his prisoner’s minds, he had been sickened by thoughts and images floated up of the greenest of forests, of fertile land and the smell of life, wet and growing…

And a brunette elf swirling and dancing in the distance, while the watcher, Beren hid behind the tree…

_A smile and a softest of touches of a slender soft hand to his face._

_His hands curling into hers…_

_Luthien…was coming to rescue Beren…_

Now all has become apparently, undeniably, deliciously clear…now the riddle in the dark was complete.

_So…an elf and a demi-goddess, has given her love to a mortal man…an ordinary, mortal, flawed and wretched, mortal man…_

Thu revelled now, in the chance to reap more chaos and evil now than he had intended.

Capturing Luthien will prove more entertaining, and perhaps easier than he realised.

“There’s hope in his heart, milord.” Ristle griped.

Thu was glad of this news the lowly had brought to him. So he saw fit to thank him.

“And soon, there will be despair to fill its void, to choke him until his world is naught but the grey of lifelessness and screams in the dark.”

Thu’s right hand shot up and clenched Ristle’s neck.

“Thank you for your report. Be proud in knowing that in your short life, you have satisfied me in your lowly service.”

Ristle’s legs lifted and kicked futilely off the ground as he gasped and grappled at his throat while Thu still held him. Above his plaintive gasps and hacking breaths as he struggled to breathe, Thu looked ahead to the door that led to the main hallway, and from there to the entrance of the fortress.

And to the bridge where Huan stood in defence of Luthien.

“The Strongest of Wolves…” He spoke absently to himself, his mind and heart seized by the desire for glory everlasting, the promise of victory growing nearer and nearer, more real by the moment, so close he could taste it whole with his slavering tongue.

His grip tightened, and Ristle’s neck gave out with a crunch, cartilage and bone grinding, muscle crushing against airway, splinter of vertebrae piercing into flesh as Thu effortlessly broke his neck in one clench of his hand.

Ristle slumped in his hand. His narrow head fell against his hand, his tongue sliding against Thu’s bare wrist, and his arms and legs dangled lifelessly in the air.

Thu let go and the corpse slumped like a sack of stone.

Thu pushed through the door, and set his mind to the first form he held within him, and upon it, he set his Will, and desire towards the shaping of himself towards that form.

Huan was about to die, and Luthien would finally receive her wish to join her mortal love and enjoy what little time she had consigned herself to have left with him.

He could not wait to see the look on her face when he showed her his new form, and what he had done to her precious lover down in his dungeon.

And when Morgoth states his desires for her on how she may serve him in his lair of Angband.

Yes…he could not wait.

Thu snarled and began to change, as he began to step into the light of the night, and made ready to become in will, a wolf to slay the mongrel and capture the elvish girl.

Tonight may offer fortune for him yet.


	3. Thu Approaches and Challenges Luthien and Her Guardian Hound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deciding to take matters into his own hands, Thu emerges from his castle in his dark wolf form, ready to face down Huan and enthrall Luthien in her bid to saver her mortal lover Beren.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Strong threat from the start and some sexual references. Plus some disturbing thoughts from sadistic Sauron.  
Plus a very cheeky reference to one of my other fics. Marta-Elentari, that reference is for you, for shipping Morgoth and Varda!

Thu resented unexpected surprises.

He had always hated surprises, despised deep in his heart the events and the developments that caught him off guard and threw his carefully laid plans in disarray.

So when he beheld Luthien, singing with her hands clasped as though in contemplative prayer, and the horse-sized wolfhound, with grey shaggy fur, narrow, muscular legs and his great jaw with tongue dangling from his red-stained jaws, Thu was content in knowing that he would only have to deal with two threats. And by eliminating one, the other would easily be neutralised as well, and be easily dealt with.

On his four limbs, Thu paced out, as slowly as he could. He kept the light of the Ether in his eyes, his only recognisable, damning trait that indicated that it was he approaching them now, in his form.

Luthien was still singing, and lifted her head to deliver her aria.

Her eyes fell on him and she stopped with a gasp that stifled her song in her throat.

Huan’s ears pricked up, a raise of those floppy domestic ears of his, and he turned to look at Luthien, but the elf did not meet his eyes.

She was too paralysed in terror at the sight of Thu as he left the shadowy entrance of the fortress, and stepped into the light.

The moon shone brightly, and he felt the chalk light upon his black furred form as he stepped forth.

Relishing in the light of the maiden sphere in the sky, he padded out so that the intruders could see him in all of his magnificence.

Thu had chosen the form of a black wolf, and enchanted the limbs of his form to be so powerful he could kill a bear in one swipe. His teeth could impale and crush a man to death with one bite, and his jaws, larger and wider in gape than his underlings were lined with venom that he could bear as a poison, a libation on his tongue that would not harm him. That same poison served as a noxious vapour, which could kill a mortal within minutes.

His own size was greater than Huan’s, the size of an oxen, and twice as long was his length. This and his fell sorcery, Thu believed, would be more than enough to slay the impudent hound and wrest Luthien into his dungeon by his jaws.

He would kill Huan and end his defiance, by tearing out his throat in front of Luthien, and relish in her horrified screams as he and his wolf kin devoured his remains and feast on his searing bloody flesh.

But he would have his fun first. After all, Thu desired to speak to someone other than his prisoners in the fleeting moments he mocked them before loosing Fardred on a chosen victim.

“Please…” Thu began, projecting his harsh, deep voice across the bridge. “…do not stop on my account.”

He felt the cold puddles of blood under his pads as he walked towards them, calculated and patient. He would savour this moment before going in for the kill. Why end it mercifully when one can draw out the moments of terror felt by your enemy in agonising, torturous length.

Noting the size Luthien’s eyes seemed to grow, her mouth parted in an expression of pure terror, Thu continued in his appraisal, knowing fully well that his appearance intimidated her, and rendered her mute in awe of his predatory, lupine form before her.

“I have not heard such singing since the days before time, before your kind awoke after the destruction of the Lanterns and the death of spring with the fall of Almaren. Your singing is almost exactly of what my master spoke of, when he sung under Eru as one of the Ainur.”

He paced closer and lowered his head, ensuring that his gleaming eyes did not lose contact with hers. He smelt the blood of the wolves, the musk of the dog by her side, and the fear and sweat radiating from the elf like a perpetual stink.

Thu grinned, making sure most of his large fangs were shown

“You honour Varda herself with your delightful little…what is it your people called it?” He looked aside for effect, pretending to search his vast memory for the right words. “Ah yes…your voice like that of a nightingale.”

At Luthien noticeably stiffening at the words, Thu felt sordid elation at the words. Intimidating the elf was almost too easy, and Thu had to curb his desire to race to them and pounce upon the elf, to subdue her with his malevolent aura and poisoned breath and have her swoon before him.

_Time…take…your time…_

“Such…a lovely singing voice…” Thu purred and continued his approach.

Luthien let out a short gasp that shook her diminutive graceful frame, and Huan made no move except to turn his head to her and back at the advancing black wolf before him.

Too easy…

He was now in front of the pair, and had reached them, close enough to make out more of their features.

Luthien appeared the heavenly forest spirit of beauty that the land had sung of, and her dark cloak she wore over her elegant blue dress seemed made out of a shimmering, brown fur, something perhaps to warm her on her nights travelling alone, it seems.

As for Huan, Thu could see that his form was slighter than his, and dark circles ringed his auburn coloured eyes. His tongue had gone back into his mouth, and only a solemn, challenging stare remained on his face.

Thu sought to change that.

“Step aside, pup. Unless you feel worthy to challenge a Maiar in tooth and claw.”

He followed with a snarling hiss from his jaws, and moved forward, ready to snap at the wolfhound’s head.

And, as if by some blessing by the Master himself, Huan’s eyes widened and he tore his eyes away and looked down to his right as he stepped aside.

Cowed. Shown his proper place. Excellent.

Thu made sure to keep both the dog and the elf in his range of vision. If Huan attempted treachery, Thu would be ready to counter it and silence him with his jaws. At this range with Huan out of his way, Thu could launch himself upon the blue-dressed and dark-haired Luthien long before the wolfhound had time to react.

Far…far too easy…

His eyes returned to Luthien’s, and he saw that her eyes were a gentle silvery colour, twinkling with starlight and unshed fear. Then, to his surprise, Luthien appeared to regain her composure, and while fear did not fully leave her eyes, she was quite impressive in her ability to subdue her rising panic as she met his eyes evenly.

Then she spoke, and her voice was ringing, sweet, serene and arrogantly proud in its demand as she addressed.

“Lord of Tol-in-Gaurhoth. Thu, Master of wolves. Gorthor the Cruel.” She took in a breath and the name she spoke next seemed itself a foul, bilious tonic that she allowed on her tongue.

“Sauron. Lieutenant to the Dark Enemy Morgoth. By the grace of my mother Melian, and the will of my father Thingol, I, Luthien of Doriath, demand that you cease your attacks on the people of Beleriand, gather your forces, and depart these lands to never return!”

Thu almost couldn’t believe his pointed ears.

Was this little girl trying to command him to leave? To entreaty him to abandon his raids on the people in the name of Morgoth? Did she truly believe that by words alone, he would simply abandon his foothold and depart the lands. Just, scurry away back to the feet of his master?

That place was already taken by one unborn, who would serve Morgoth in his unsleeping vigilance at the bottom of his throne, and Thu had no intention, suffice it to say, of abandoning his fortress and facing the punishment of the Master.

Thu looked down shaking his great head and chuckled mockingly. She had spirit, that much he could tell.

When he had finished his laugh, he captured the gaze of the elf again, keeping his toothy grin.

“What a spirit you have in thinking you could simply command me with words alone, little Luthien.”

At her sharp intake of breath, Thu pressed the advantage.

“Oh yes. I know exactly who you are, if your lovely voice was anything to go by in this stunted, flawed realm of primitives. Of hoary barbarians and mangy magicians, speaking wistfully of Luthien of Thingol’s issue in hushed tones of reverence, and bandy gossip.” He made a note to add with sadistic relish. Being desired by humans no doubt placed a danger upon elves unlike any other that they encountered, and in many places, the elves were forced to be more elusive in the face of the mortal’s desire for their riches and their women for their beauty.

“And I know why you have come.” He added.

Luthien’s knowing look rendered any attempt of concealment of hers impossible. Such expressive, emotional eyes of hers…eyes that easily ensnared the wandering wild man and ranger, the fool Beren.

“Where we not so opposed as we are now, I might even dare call you beautiful…for an elf.” He snarled and licked his fangs and nose with his tongue. “But I suppose our little wandering Edain of Dorthonian and son of the worm-feeding Barahir, rotting in the dungeons bellow us might take some objection to that…”

Luthien’s hands were beginning to shake, and she appeared to make a great effort in concealing the tremble in her pretty little voice as she demanded of him.

“What have you done with him?”

Thu allowed himself to chuckle again. He was glad he left his tower to do this. Not only would he have the satisfaction of dealing with his little pest problem, he would also have the chance to revel in the torment he would now cause.

“Little Luthien…little ‘daughter of flowers’. Little enchantress. Little princess of the feys of the woodland clan… You were quite a sight for that mortal outlaw’s eyes when he first beheld you, dancing and swirling around in the glades of Esgalduin in your father’s forest. Amongst the hemlocks and the grass and beneath the trees standing sentinel above you in the starry night.”

Luthien’s terror at his knowledge, easily foraged and scavenged from his probes into her lover’s mind, intimate knowledge, knowledge that was sacred to them and them alone was absolutely delicious. At her silence, Thu was merciless.

“I felt his thoughts. They drifted back always in that moment in his time in the dungeon. Clinging to them as a babe to his blanket while my executioner ripped his friends apart, one for each night, dragging them away screaming into the darkness.”

A tear fell down one of her cheeks. Thu did not relent.

“I can tell you just what exactly his thoughts were when he first looked upon you, and lost you, when he rushed at you out of the bushes like a wild beast, clawing at your arm and chained in despair when you screamed and left him to wander in the woods. Tinuviel…oh Tinuviel…” Thu mocked the elf.

Another tear fell down her face.

“That was what he called you, was it not? By his little…pet name of Quendian for you, he bound you to him and condemned you with a kiss of his lips.”

Thu allowed his spirit to darken, so that it too in his voice, would reach out and darken hers. Weakened, she have no choice but to comply. If not, his poisonous breath would simply immobilise her and he would carry her away in his jaws.

“Daughter of Twilight…his precious…his Nightingale. And now…bound to him by doom, that fell upon you when you saw him, rugged and wretched, and loved him back.”

A warning growl came from the Wolfhound, and Thu saw that he had mustered the bravery to look up at him and snarl, sensing his pretty elf mistress’s distress. He silenced him with a glare of his eyes, burning into the cur’s eyes. Huan’s lips fell back over his teeth and he looked down again.

_See my power. My strength. Challenge me and court death, mongrel cur. Hunter of Orome or not, you will die here tonight by my fangs._

He looked back over to Luthien.

“I could tell you this and so much more that would make your heart despair. Does it despair you that Beren is the last of his clan and kin? That he is simply a roving murderer with a heart of ice? That when he saw you…”

He took another step forward.

“…his thoughts of you, were not entirely pure. Like a hind panting for water, he, a starving beast looked upon you and felt desire. Desire of the impure kind. Does it hurt you to know that? Hurt you to know that you gave your life and soul and heart in bondage to an animal that lusted over you as base and as selfish as a mortal man?”

“You don’t know him.” Luthien bit back at him. “You don’t know the man he truly is. What he has done. How kind and noble he has been to me.”

“Has he lain with you yet?”

His question intentionally caught her off guard, and Thu growled with delight at the flush that came over the grey eyed elf’s cheeks.

“I suppose he hasn’t.” Thu drew his conclusion. “Many a war and conquest has been started by mortal man by the promise of satiation, of succour, granted by the desires of the flesh. I gather, perhaps, that such knowledge of you, being as he sincerely, frantically desired the same way mortal men do, he vowed not to marry you until he had completed whatever quest he embarked upon to win your hand. And your bed.”

Thu to this day still did not know what drove Felagand and his party from Nargothrond along with the errant Beren in their quest into his lands. But Morgoth would pry the secrets from Beren’s head yet, if his torture yielded no more secrets.

Luthien’s bottom lip trembled, and Thu resumed his ravenous stare upon her. He now had her right where he wanted her. Her warhound useless against him, Luthien had no hope. And no defense.

She was a fool to have come here.

“Whatever Beren’s intent, I know it not. Nor do I know, or care, about the matter of your betrothal, as amusing as it was to pry them from your dying lover’s thoughts. He dies still, down there in the crypt.”

“You lie.” Luthien defiantly spoke back at him. “I hear him sing. I feel his heart soar in joy and hope for me. The pain you have wrought on him shall be for nought, and your evil will be driven from these lands forever.”

“And you and Beren will live the rest of your short lives until you drift away like spectres in the fog, lost to time and memory. You foolish girl.” Thu snapped back.

“You think that he loves you? That his infantile, grasping, fumbling and lusting wretched feelings in that mind of his is what you elves call love?” Thu derisively spoke. “Next you will tell me that Morgoth and Varda meet once in a blue moon and consummate their forbidden love as wolfman and dragonfey. Do not make me laugh.” Thu snarled.

Glaring down at her, Thu laid out his plans before, to further inspire dread in her heart from his malevolent intent.

“After I kill your hound and bite out his heart, I will take you to the dungeons below my keep. You will see your lover, and give him some joy for the remainder of his short life. I know not what effect my poisonous fangs will have upon you, but I’m sure a little nip on Beren’s fingers will be more than enough to ensure a final, prolonged and agonising death. You can watch him, and give him comfort in his final moments as he withers away before you, powerless to help. When the light goes out from his eyes and he sees nothing, you will see a glimpse of the damnation you have inflicted on yourself by wasting your light in joining with a mortal man.”

He stepped closer, and was now leering over her. At this range, Huan could not intervene in time, and a thrust and a bite would cripple her and render her quite incapable of fighting back as he carried her away.

“Then I will take you to my master in Angband. Morgoth desires you to be in his court and at his throne before his feet. I can only guess at the uses he will have for you, when you are within his black iron grip. You could sing to him…perhaps. Make use of that voice of yours while you can before you waste away within his corrupting presence till you are but a husk of your former self.”

He tilted his head to ponder further.

“That is, unless he makes you join his company of vampires. Thuringwethil resides in this fortress herself. She’s dying for fresh meat, so to speak, and Morgoth…well…” His grin widened. “Morgoth has uses for his delightful little vampires as well…”

Thu allowed himself to chuckle.

The sinister spirit within him clamoured in malicious joy, and he felt his chuckle grow into a contained, cackle of vile laughter. In his presence, all fled, whimpered or died. In his presence nothing could challenge him! He was Sauron! He was Master of Wolves and the right hand of the True Master of Arda!

“Who are you in thinking, that you could come to my fortress and bargain with me for your lover and my seat of power?” Thu demanded of Luthien. “You are a weak-willed pathetic little elf, whose power is diminished by the disgusting union your Maia mother had with an elf. You are nothing but the over-touted, over-praised and over-confident spawn of grace and sickening light!” He spat with slavering jaws at the elf.

He made ready to pounce, and began to bend his legs. Luthien was shaking, but she did not panic at the jaws of death, his jaws of death, slandering her name and her cause.

“You are….NOTHING!”

Huan yelped. Thu roared terribly and loud, and then lunged, his form casting a shadow on Luthien’s slight form.

Luthien did not scream.

Instead, wide-eyed and enthralled in the peril she was in, she moved.

Her left hand grabbed at her furred cloak and swung ahead, over his eyes, brushing against his face, sliding across his brow.

_You think a little cloak can stop me, little fey-_

Time seemed to slow to a grinding halt.

Luthien whispered.

_“Cen- i lira -o Melian, rauko!”_

Then light came from her eyes, the cloak fell over his own and-

* * *

_Thu blinked open his eyes._

_He was in darkness, and before him he saw, resplendid in damaged but dark and lethal armour, black and spiked and forged of iron…Morgoth._

_But he appeared different._

_His burnt, scarred and fanged face, the dark devil god, monstrous in his appearance and malice gleaming in his eyes…was chained. He was humbled, a look that ill-suited him, and his crown…where was his iron crown! Where were the three gleaming Silmarils that he carried burning in his hands away from Formenos into the North, risking treachery by the shadowed devourer Ungoliant and her greedy biting webs!_

_Where…he saw it. On his neck, beaten by hammers, warped and stretched, the iron crown had now fallen to his neck. Collared. Morgoth had been collared like a dog._

_What blasphemy…what insolence…how dare one lay low and humble the proudest and the strongest of the Valar! _

_“Morgoth!” A voice! Male, clear and ringing. He could not see who spoke, for the dark master was surrounded by light, and bound in his chains, he could not move. _

_And Thu looked upon him and felt his heart lurch in horror at the bloody stumps where Morgoth’s feet, Melkor’s feet used to be. They had been cut out underneath him._

_“Melkor of the Valar.” The voices of his accusers were many and numerous. Joined in a heavenly, righteous choir, in song united they addressed him, and laid down upon him their judgement and their sentencing._

_“For your crimes innumerable, for your atrocities against the song of life, against the Elves, against the realm of Arda, against Middle Earth, against the dwarves and the world of men, and against the will of the Creator Eru, you shall be condemned to dwell in the void!”_

_Melkor snarled, and in the back of his throat, a rising, oily snarl rose from his throat, and he growled in unrestrained hatred for those who bound him._

_“Be cast out, Dark Enemy! And dwell ye shall in the void, until the life of the world comes, and Dagor Dagorath shall see thee come forth and meet thy final doom!”_

_Morgoth snarled and his teeth, yellow, curved and sharp snapped as he yelled back at his Valar accusers._

_“Mandos…neglected to tell you…that I will shatter the door of night, and bring forth the end times, and my greatest servants I will tear from the grave and rip from the guts of hell to end the reign of the Arda. I will find Eru. I will claw my way to the heavens and crush his throat beneath my boot! This cannot contain me! Your petulant imprisonment cannot contain me! I will return! I WILL RETURN!”_

_“BE GONE! AND TROUBLE THE SONG OF ERU NO MORE!” The voices, male and female in union sung out, and light flew forth and struck his chest, and Morgoth roared and screamed and bellowed in bestial fury, as the light smote him, and sent him through a great golden door frame, beyond which only the starless night of oblivion lied._

_“Master!” Thu tried to yell. “Master!!-_

* * *

Thu awoke.

The cloak…he smelt it…it smelt of her…of her feminine, musk, sweet and tanging.

A cloak…made of her hair?

Bewitched by some fell enchantment…

Thu felt the dregs of slumber pour over his mind, and he thought with all of his might to stave of the currents of sleep lapping at the edges of his conscious.

“Arrghgh!” Thu snarled, shaking his head.

His mind…his legs were shaking…

He saw… as the cloak fell away…

Luthien…her grey eyes wide and desperate…beautiful…condemning…damn her…

Magic trapped him? Then darkness will free him.

_“Baniukh avhe ukhroud ro elviukh enchanavmenav”_

The orcish deviant of Mordor's Black Speech immediately did its work. A barely visible shockwave of power ripped out of his form and blasted the falling cape, and its enchantment that was sang into it, away from his mind and spirit.

Luthien keeled over, staggering on her feet, gasping as if she was struck by a spear and fell to her knees.

And the spell of slumber fell away from him.

Thu would have been relieved to have liberated himself from the feeble elf’s spell, but his rage and imbalance at seeing his master…what happened to his master that the blasphemous elf dared put into his mind.

“You…will pay for that!” Thu snarled and his hackles rose upon his neck as he peeled his black lips back to reveal his red maw and great piercing fangs. He bore down upon the fallen elf maiden.

Forget taking her prisoner. Melkor will not suffer a witch who put such foul illusions of his death into his servant’s heads to live. The master would understand, and Beren will simply have to make do with her severed head for company.

“Die!

“ROO ROO!”

Thu heard barking from his right and turned too late.

He felt jaws, smaller than his but stupendously crushing in power, slam into the side of his neck and the body behind them push hard.

Thu was shoved away from the elvish princess as she began to crawl away from him and was smashed bodily into the rail of the bridge.

His right eye swivelled as he tensed his neck muscles to resist the crushing jaws of-

Huan.

Huan had finally found his courage and dared to attack him.

And Thu decided that he no longer had any interest in prisoners or mercy.

Perhaps all Beleriand and the king and queen of Doriath deserve a lesson in humility.

Because when they find out what Thu did to Huan and their beloved daughter Luthien, they will sooner throw themselves on their swords before even entertaining the notion of rebellion against him and his master ever again.


	4. Thu and Huan clash, and Thu faces his reckoning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In Which Thu clashes with Huan, unaware that he is about to suffer a colossal defeat and be outmatched by Luthien, whom he sorely underestimated and made the bitter mistake of taunting in the previous chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies if anyone notices similarities between OC Rh'llor and OC Dany between Thu and Luthien in this scene. Heroic characters resisting demonic forces are very inspiring to write, and Thu is about to get defeated twice.  
Thank you all so much for your patience and please, do leave a kudos and a comment if you liked it!  
Love to my fans!
> 
> Strong violence and threat in this chapter!

Thu resented being pinned down.

And worst of all, he was unwilling to indulge in internal soliloquies on how much he hated them or anything in general. He hated everything right now. He was that furious over the shifting of emotions he had experienced in the short space of an hour that, needless to say, completely sabotaged his quiet evening.

So he sought to change his situation.

Planting his feet on the stone of the bridge, he pushed and twisted, matching and overcoming Huan’s strength.

With a hideous snarl, Thu swung his head and threw Huan off, behind him. Ignoring the pain bleeding fresh and deep in his neck as the hound’s teeth tore away from his flesh, Thu swung and Huan flew briefly through the air before landing on the bridge.

He was just recovering before Thu charged and bore himself down on him.

Thu opened his jaws, ready for his venomous bite to sink into Huan’s ratty furred flesh –

-and clacked down, tasting nothing.

Thu opened his eyes to see the back legs of the wolfhound, and he followed them to see Huan soaring over him and landing behind him, in front of Luthien who was standing shakily to her feet.

_So…he is fast._ Thu observed to himself.

Huan held his ground and peeled back his blood stained grey lips to bare his smaller, pitiful white fangs at him in a low, constant growl.

Pathetic. Thu thought.

“So the defender rises up too late to avenge his mistress’s honour. How honourable.”

Thu stood on his legs straight and wheeled around to face the Wolfhound fully.

“Does your pretty master know better than to chase wolves with her dog? She might lose her pet to their savage and ripping jaws, and be left all alone with no hound to defend her like the little lamb she is.”

Huan’s growl only increased in volume and savagery, and Thu felt a growl rise in his throat at the defiance of the smaller hound before him.

“Do you not know death when it comes baring down on you and the people you love, wretched hound! Do you not see that you are outclassed?” Thu threatened the wolfhound.

The wolfhound only continued to growl, and his shoulders tensed and bulged with coiled muscle, ready to meet his charge or bolt at him head on.

So he still wishes to fight…

_The insubordinate runt… _Thu thought to himself, seething at the compounding elements of frustration caused by the events of the night.

_Perhaps disembowelling you will silence that reckless spirit of yours…_

“You think Orome’s blessings will protect you?” Thu began. “You think the prophecy will bless you with protection from all wolves except the strongest. Well look upon me, Huan of Luthien. Look upon thy death. I am the strongest wolf in all of Arda. I am the Necromancer, the right hand of Morgoth, and his will incarnate as master of wolves. You will taste no victory here today, but I will bathe in your blood and the blood of your precious elf!”

Thu crouched on his haunches and craned his jaws to give a hideous, deep and piercing howl, the dark song of the night that promised impending death to his prey, and now, it promised the bloody and painful deaths of Huan and Luthien.

Thu looked forward and snarled, baring all of his teeth.

Huan snarled back and barked back at him.

Thu charged.

Huan charged.

The two met in the middle of the bridge in three bounds.

Huan’s leap toppled Thu as he crashed into him, and he pinioned around as they crashed into each other mid-leap and rolled about on the floor.

And within his dark heart, his mind and his spirit, all yearned at once for one thing and one thing only to visit upon Huan.

_DEATH!!!!!!!_

Thu roared and bit down hard into Huan’s flank. Huan’s jaws bit and gouged into his flank and Thu let go to bite down at his shoulder.

Huan snarled and bit down at his neck, and they rolled about on the floor of the bridge, trading bites, scratches and wrestles in their attempts to pin one another.

Thu gained the advantage, and flipped Huan onto his back. Biting into his chest, he clenched hard in his jaws and swung, smashing Huan into one wall of the bridge, then the other. Left. Right. Left. Right. Thu hoped that if he hit Huan enough times, he could stun him and he would leave his throat open.

His last hit struck so hard a crack formed in the bridge where Huan’s body struck it.

Huan’s hind paws scraped into his chest and then found purchase. They kicked. Thu’s jaws tore off the wolfhound’s chest as he was struck off and flew, skidding across the floor and tumbling away.

Thu hit the ground hard, and grunted as the impact jolted his entire body.

"Gragghh...."

Thu wobbled shakily to his feet up, shaking off his vertigo over his death roll with Huan. He knew he was bleeding. Felt the injuries and the pain from exposed nerve and muscle, and the wind blowing against the patches where fur had been torn off and his skin had been shown.

Thu looked up at the dog, expecting him to be as bloodied as he.

He did his best to conceal his surprise when he looked and saw the Beren had no injury upon him.

Panting, exhausted, and with some stains of wet blood darkening his pelt, though Thu had reason to doubt that they were Huan’s blood, Huan stood very much awake and very much focused on his task. He wasn’t delirious or trying to conceal a tremble, nor was he limping in the slightest. He presented his left side to him and growled, his ears pressed low against his neck.

Thu would not let this stand. He would not let it be known that he, Thu, Gorthaug, Sauron, bloodied himself against a mangy wolfhound and came off worse than his foe. He was larger. He was stronger. He was immortal. He was the dark blade of Morgoth. The will of darkness incarnate. Melkor’s Disciple Ascendant.

And after taking punishment from him, driven before him by his thews, Huan did not look any worse for wear. Scuffed and bruised, but not broken or rent.

Unacceptable. Thu would amend that.

Thu bellowed, deep and grating, channelling his demonic essence into a malevolent, monstrous bellow, the corruption of Eru’s song embodied in his lupine, blood-lusting roar.

Huan snarled, licking his nose and barked in a series of savage calls in return, an answering, inferior challenge.

Thu bounded towards him, leaving claw marks in the stone from how powerful he tore from where he stood.

He blurred towards Huan, and feinted to his left.

Huan followed, snapping at where he expected him to be, and left his right flank exposed.

Thu sidestepped to his left and lunged at his neck.

But Huan’s head crashed into his own, biting into his ear. Thu screeched and bit into skin and fur, and Huan relinquished it.

Thu tried to rise onto his hindlegs to pin him beneath his paws so he could rip out his throat and break his ribs under his weight.

Huan rose and pushed away his paws with his own.

Clawing and scratching, wolfhound and wolf struck and belted into each other's flanks, clawing at each other’s chests, snapping at any part of them they saw.

Thu pushed against Huan with all his terrible strength, trying to overwhelm him.

Huan held. He bit into Thu’s left paw and pain coursed through his left limb. Rage pushed Thu through his pain and Thu saw one of Huan’s ears dangling. He lunged and took it in his jaws, biting deep. He twisted with his head and pulled.

Flesh tore, his teeth hooked in and anchored into cartilage, Thu tore away-

-and felt the ear slip out of his teeth.

_What?_

But before Thu could process why he wasn’t holding Huan’s ear in his mouth, Huan twisted and sank his jaws into his muscular throat.

Thu yelled, Huan shoved and pushed him back, and Thu smashed his head against Huan’s. The grip broke and Thu made a snap at Huan’s head.

If he caught the smaller hound’s head in his mouth, one crushing bite would pulverise his skull and render his head a pulpy mass of bloody brain and bone.

One crunch-

Huan dodged the bite, opened his jaws and bit down.

Huan’s top jaw bit over Thu’s top jaw, and his bottom jaw trapped Thu’s bottom jaw.

Thu’s eyes widened with surprise. The smaller hound had trapped his jaws in his own, like how an alpha asserts dominance over his packmembers- _the impudence! You mock me, hound!_

Thu shook, pulled, strained, dragging the smaller hound around, claws skidding across the stone as he was pulled along by the stronger wolf.

But his jaws held, and Thu felt pain blossom across his jaw as the hound’s maw bit down over his.

Thu stopped swinging his head to try and dislodge the hound, in a bid to anchor his feet and then simply toss the wolfhound off the bridge.

With a low growl, Huan bounded to Thu’s left, jaws still pinned in his maw, and shoved up and forward.

The right side of Thu’s face exploded in pain as Huan, with unexpected strength, slammed his head against the stony sill of the bridge.

Huan’s grip did not abate. The pain tightened and Huan lifted Thu and smashed him against the stone so hard he saw stars.

And again.

And again.

And again.

Thu’s feet scrambled beneath him to pull or push himself away, but the bone-jarring impacts caused him to stumble with nausea and fatigue.

Then Huan lifted him, and with a righteous bark, flung Thu bodily across the bridge.

Thu clattered around, spinning. His world was agony, vertigo and his entire right side stung from blows that would have cracked a lesser being’s skull open. He seldom could believe that the bridge was still standing after the punishment he took.

“RARRGGHHH!” Thu roared and shook his head. He tasted blood and spat out a wad of red, vermillion splattering on ash grey. Snarling with vehement, venomous hatred, Thu stood to his feet, cursing the nausea for making his limbs shake.

He looked at Huan, who was advancing towards him. His own auburn eyes were fierce and glowed with a brimming, fierce power behind them. Purpose. Determination. Fury.

But not hatred. Nor bloodlust. All that stood inside the Wolfhound of Orome’s eyes was willpower. Unstoppable resolve. Indomitable in his sense of purpose and his strength of being.

And Thu came to a very troubling and very sudden conclusion.

Huan was stronger than him.

And he was going to win.

_But, how...?_

“How!?” Thu chose to speak his thoughts, no longer holding the energy to muse over this sudden and very disturbing revelation.

When Huan said nothing in his advance, Thu filled the silenced with his rage filled bellow that rendered his throat hoarse.

“HOW! I AM THU! I AM THE MASTER OF WOLVES. THE STRONGEST WOLF IN ALL OF ARDA! THE PROPHECY STATES THAT YOU WILL FALL BEFORE THE STRONGEST OF WOLVES, AND THAT IS WHAT I AM! THE STRONGEST! THE STRONGEST!

Huan did not stop in his advance. Thu risked a glance past him, and saw Luthien, the elf still standing there, anxiously watching, and wringing her hands in worry.

He resumed his gaze on Huan. If he couldn’t beat him, then maybe…maybe…

“You…” He snarled. “You’re a just mangy pet! A flea-beaten, filth-rolling, self-debasing wolfhound. You that reside in this world and cavort with its filth. Wretched, filthy cur! Your kind submitted to the Valar and to men, and will always be the lesser for it! The lesser race, compared to the true children of the night!”

Huan snarled with a small curl of his lips, but continued his advance. He was now much closer, and Thu would not retreat into his fortress. Not do so and be shown as a cowering mutt with his tail between his legs, simpering before the superior foe, and be seen as weak in front of his wolf army. He will not!

Thu realised however that if he charged Huan again, and pitted his strength against him, the smaller but stupendously more resilient and powerful hound would beat him into submission.

So Thu resorted to his other strategy.

“And what is a dog without his master? When the master dies, does the hound remember his past nature and return to the forests?”

He bent on his haunches.

“Or does he wander aimlessly till death or misfortune take him, and he is driven mad and low to scavenging and listlessly drifting like a vagrant?”

Huan froze and appeared indecisive. He wasn’t sure what Thu was trying to do.

And in that moment Thu used Huan’s confusion to his full advantage.

“Shall we find out?” Thu could not resist the temptation to include his rhetorical question with a full, maniacal wolfish grin.

He pushed up and soared off the ground, leaping over Huan’s wide-eyed face as he realised too late what he was trying to do.

He leapt over and bounded, wasting no time in sprinting, gathering speed as he ran across the bridge-

-And straight towards Luthien.

Her grey eyes widened and her mouth opened with a gasp of fear as she realised what was coming for her.

_Yes…yes…yes!!!_

Thu was picking up speed. He would be on her in four bounds.

He felt his jaws salivate in anticipation. Luthien would not be the first elf he had torn to shreds in his jaws, and she would not be the last. He bared his huge fangs and closed the gap.

He was so close now that he could see the fine lines of the hair-spun cloak Luthien scrambled to throw over her. A feeble shield.

_You are mine!_

Thu lifted his head, opened his jaws and brought them down towards Luthien.

He savoured the moment her small body would be encased in his crushing jaws and the wet crunch, the same way one crushed a rat under their feet, and yearned for the taste of blood seeping through broken flesh.

His jaws crushed down and-

Something pierced his tail like a vice, and Thu was pulled back by a sudden jerking motion. His jaws fell forward and clacked together, inches from Luthien’s mortified face.

_But how…_

A growl sounded from behind him.

Huan…

Huan had bounded after him, caught up, and bitten into his tail.

_Damn you….Huan!!!_

Thu whirled around to rip Huan’s leg off for pulling on his tail.

And couldn’t suppress the yelp that squeaked out of his throat as Huan pulled him up.

Lifted him up, standing on his hindlegs out of the corner of Thu’s eyes as he swung through the air, wind rushing through his air so close it nearly deafened him-

-And brought him crashing down hard onto the stone bridge.

The dust that was stirred up from the impact blinded him, which was the least of his concern because Thu felt something break from the force of his own bodyweight and Huan slamming him like a ragdoll into the bridge.

Thu blinked away the stars, the bleary fog that came with the rising urge to pass out, his own brain giving out from the brutal concussive trauma he had just suffered.

_Damn…you…hound!_

Thu dragged himself up.

How could this happen?

He was larger and stronger, and was aided by sorcery. He should have ripped Huan open with his claws and jaws.

But some enchantment had charmed his bones from breaking, his flesh from tearing, and his body from snapping like a twig under his jaws.

And Thu was trying his damnedest to quell the voice in his mind telling him that despite all of his strengths and cunning, all of his tricks, and all of his power, channelled into his form, he may not be the strongest wolf. Or at least, not the wolf meant to kill Huan.

_Impossible…_he denied. _Impossible!_

A warning growl turned Thu’s eyes up and he saw Huan, standing over him.

And Thu feared as he looked up at the wet nose and the powerful, large jaws of the wolfhound above him that he was about to be beaten, or worse killed.

Thu felt only rage. The humiliation and punishment Melkor, Morgoth, his master, dealt brutally and agonisingly to those who failed him, who displeased him…the shame, the pain…

He would not be beaten like this.

_I WILL NOT RUN._

_I WILL NOT RUN!!!_

Thu snarled and from his jaws his tongue twisted in arcane, malicious patterns as he uttered a spell in Mordor Black Speech.

“_Gajarpan zna_!”

And he felt his form change, like a flash of lightning. Sensation of limbs, shrinking and retracting into his body, and his body lengthening and entwining, the wind caressing his bare skin that lost its fur and merged into scale.

And before Huan could react, Thu, in his grey and black mottled serpent form, had twined his form around the hound and twisted. Coil after coil wound about the furred hound and Thu squeezed, willing all of his strength into crushing the foe so harshly that his eyes would pop.

Righting himself, Thu gazed down in his vision that made Luthien and Huan’s forms glow in colours of orange and green in a world of blueish hue.

Drawn to his body heat, Thu squeezed and felt the bones under Huan’s skin begin to creak. A little more pressure, and all of Huan’s ribs would be broken and pierce his vital organs.

Huan writhed and bit at his coils, and Thu opened his mouth and allowed his dripping, venomous fangs to unfurl from his upper jaw.

He reared back his head, waited for Huan to bite down in vain on another scale, and lunged, seeking to impale and inject the troublesome dog with his fangs.

Huan whipped his head around and bit down into his nose.

Blinding pain made Thu’s eyes water and he reared his head back and screamed in bestial fury.

Huan squeezed out of his coils and by the time Thu looked, he was leaping up at his throat.

Thu realised he was in trouble the second Huan’s iron jaws sunk into the soft underflesh of his throat.

_Get him off! Get him off!_

If Huan could choke him into submission, if he cut off my airways…

Get him off!

Not bothering to struggle, Thu chose another form.

“_Nagraufrom u naur zna!_”

This time, he would do as he did with his own creations and the blood of Draugluin, and fuse man with wolf.

Thu shrank and felt his limbs return to him, but this time they became like a man’s hands, but where nails should dwell, claws stood in their place.

By the time Thu’s legs, now double-jointed and muscular in form, hit the stone bridge, his hands were reaching up and his fingers with black claws pierced into Huan’s jaws, still latched to his throat.

In his werewolf form, Thu would use his superior dexterity granted to him by his hands and easily subdue the wolfhound and rip him apart.

But first he would start with those offending jaws of his.

Thu ripped the jaws away from his throat, ignoring the sheer pain and the air stinging at exposed nerve and flesh as he pulled the wolfhound’s jaws away, and then began to pull apart, straining as he sought to widen Huan’s jaws to the point that they would break. He would rip the lower jaw off, or the top half of Huan’s skull off. He was not fussed as to which broke first.

Straining and pulling, Thu felt victory surge within him as the jaw muscles of the hound strained in futility against his superior strength.

_Die…die….die!_

Thu leaned his will towards the breaking of Huan’s jaws.

Then, by a stroke of poor luck, Huan’s jaws remembered their crushing strength, and bit down together.

Thu’s fingers were now trapped in Huan’s mouth, and Thu bellowed in pain at the vice like grip burning, crushing, breaking apart his finger bones.

With one last ounce of strength, Thu pulled the jaws open enough to extricate his hands from the wolfhound’s jaws.

Staggering back, Thu cried out in pain as he saw the bitten, ruined remains of his werewolf fingers. Mangled and crippled, bitten so fiercely that he could see bone, crushed or otherwise completely torn off, Thu would need time to regenerate his mangled werewolf hands.

Thu looked up at Huan.

With a shake of his head, the Wolfhound spat out the two of Thu’s fingers he had in his mouth.

They clattered dully on the stone bridge.

And Thu had had enough.

He would use his final form, and Huan and Luthien would be annihilated in one killing stroke.

Clenching his ruined hands into fists, Thu uttered the words to unleash his strongest warrior form.

“_Burz mau zna_!”

Darkness shrouded him, and he grew in height, straighter and taller than his hunched form as a werewolf.

Obsidian armour clanked and bolted and fused, burning and smouldering together, and Thu felt the comfortable weight of his dark armour forge from mere shadow and into its spiked, crowned and indestructible form.

When he emerged from his cloud, he looked down on the hound and the elf, and Luthien staggered back and gasped, with a hand to her mouth.

Thu looked down upon Huan, and felt the weight of his blood mace in his hand. With flanged blades and strong enough to send men flying, Thu lifted his mace.

And swung it down full force on the stunned wolfhound.

Thu didn’t hear the crunch of flesh, or the pulverising of bone crunching like a wet fruit.

But Huan’s form crumpled under the weight of his blood mace, and that was enough.

Choosing not to hazard a look once the dust cleared, Thu lifted his mace and struck down again.

He didn’t check the blades of his mace for blood or bone. He didn’t stop to inspect his bloody work. Huan had established himself from a nuisance to a threat to a serious danger to his life. Too much of a danger for him to hold back in his strikes, and so Thu gave all of his right arm into the swings that crashed down onto the wolfhound’s body.

He would not stop until the bridge itself broke under the weight of his mace’s strikes into the hound’s body.

Orome’s hound or not, his was the strength of Melkor. His mace was not Morgoth’s Warhammer Grond, capable of levelling mountains and creating huge craters where it struck, but it would render his foe into mincemeat all the same.

_Fall…fall…fall!_

And with one final lift, Thu swung and smashed the mace down on Huan so hard that he felt the bridge crack under the force of the strike.

_There…that would do it._

Thu could not see through the dust, so he waited until it cleared for a moment, before he could pick it up and display it to the world as tribute to his dark master.

Then he would drag Luthien screaming to his dungeon.

The dust floated, and Thu could see barely, the motionless form of the shaggy, grey haired hound.

Huan appeared still, and did not move.

Thu blinked.

And opened his eyes to see-

Nothing.

Then a short bark drew his eyes further down.

And saw jaws opening wide to enclose him by the throat.

Thu panicked and jolted upwards, but the force of Huan colliding with his body sent him tumbling back.

He lost his balance, and crashed down onto the floor hard, and Huan leaned fully into the pounce, as his jaws tightened around Thu’s throat.

Thu tried to shrink back to his snake form.

Huan’s jaws didn’t leave his throat.

Thu tried his werewolf form again.

Huan’s jaws were a gin trap.

Thu tried his wolf form and writhed and howled and shook and tore against Huan’s clenching hold.

And Huan held him fast in his jaws.

_No…No this can’t be! This can’t be! I’m not supposed to lose to a whelp!_

_I’m not…_

Huan’s jaws bit down so hard that they strangled into his throat, cutting off air and any further thought. His hot breath made him sweat and Thu lost control of his form.

He shrank, and now, bruised and bloodied, he was now returned to his finely garbed and elegant Maiar Form. Elegant being a poor choice of words at this moment.

He was rugged, and his straight black hair was a matted, blood stained mess. His robes was sullied and torn, and his body ached all over with throbbing, dull pain. Thu tasted copper red, felt it trickling down his lips.

And Huan’s jaws were crushing the life out of his neck.

_This…this cannot be…this cannot be…_

Thu heard the footsteps, light and gentle on the stone, above the din of Huan’s constant growl.

He looked up to his left, and saw Luthien standing over him, as Huan held him down by his throat.

“I…” He hissed, his voice a choked warble, through his teeth. “Will flay the skin…from your body with my mind, and make your lover wear it!”

Save for the fire in her steel grey eyes, Luthien’s composure was as stone. Imposing, her judgement upon him was clear, and his sentencing was now in her hands. Huan had overpowered him, and now Luthien held the power.

“Your power is spent.” She growled. “You are defeated, Thu of Wolves, Sauron of Morgoth. You were not the strongest of wolves, as you believed yourself to be. You lie, and you hurt, and you kill, but in the end, you deceive only yourself.”

Tears fell down her cheeks, and Thu could at least pride himself in his villainous soul that he had so affected Luthien as to fracture her composure. He had come so close to killing her, to carrying her down to his dungeons and breaking her with his jaws.

But it was not meant to be, and Thu’s heart mired in torment and frustration that made the world bleed red in his hateful, malevolent sight.

“You think you can kill me?” He goaded. “I am the Dark Enemy’s right hand. His power is within me, and I am unstoppable. I am eternal. I have been there since the very beginning, when the songs of Eru and the Ainur first forged this world in its sickeningly sweet symphony, before Melkor perfected it. Do you think that the jaws of Orome’s hunting dog, will put an end to someone as powerful as me?!” He bitterly snarled, showing his yellowed teeth sodden with blood.

“I am sure that Huan is willing to try." Luthien replied, unafraid. "He could kill you and rid the world of your darkness forever, or make things very difficult for you to maintain your Maiar form. What say you, Huan?”

The mighty warhound pinning him snarled and bit down harder, and Thu gritted his teeth and snarled demonically at the pressure. Any harder and the cartilage in front of his throat would snap like a chicken’s ribcage.

Thu would not be cowed by this. He did not fear death…but…

If his Maiar form suffered too lethal a blow or wound right now…maintaining his corporeal form would be difficult, and Thu had not learned fully how to manifest his spirit in wraith form, or to transmute parts of it into other objects.

It was what he was trying to learn of before he was so rudely interrupted. And then this happened.

What a rotten evening this was turning out to be.

Thinking quickly, Thu attempted to salvage this colossal disaster.

“Kill me…” Thu threatened. “And my spirit will ride your body and burn out your heart. Your body will be my shell, and I will live in disguise as you, and then murder your loved ones wearing your face one by one until all in your house are dead, and you hold Beren’s head in your hands!”

“You will not do anything to me.” Luthien spoke with defiance and conviction. He had rattled her but he could not break her. Nothing, Thu realised, could, as she continued.

“You will not touch me. You will not possess me. You will not harm me, or my family, or Beren or anyone I love ever again. You will depart these lands, and leave Beleriand. Give over the fortress and its prisoners to me, and I will let you live. If there is trickery, if there is any deceit from you, then Huan will slay thee, and you will bleed out of your throat in front of your own fortress and Morgoth’s hold in this realm will be weakened. I know not what awaits your soul beyond the Halls of Mandos, should it escape your master's clutches, but I can assure you that the Valar will rejoice and see that you face justice for the atrocities you have wrought in these lands.”

Thu snarled at the talk of gods and justice. He would have no use for it.

“Spare me your pious, elvish nobility. Your kind was but an afterthought for the Valar, and art nothing more than a pale reflection of the true power of the gods. You live for ages yet learn nothing. You contemplate the ways of the world yet do not seek to master the powers that forged them. You live forever, yet die like flies to the blade and the bow as easily as any beast. You are a flawed creation, as helpless and short-sighted and inept as the ones who sung your people into existence.” Thu replied with venom and blood in his maw.

The cords in Luthien’s hands showed in her hands as she clenched them together, and her elegant form shook at the rage and the upset and the fear at his words.

_Yes…feel doubt…feel your fear…let it twist you…let it break you…command the hound to release my throat and surrender to my thrall…_

But Luthien did no such thing.

Instead, though her lip trembled and her breathing was sharp and fierce, her aura darkened and the pale light of the moon overcast, shone and illuminated her features…

“You will not hurt anyone here…ever again.”

Her power built, rising like a building storm, and Thu realised that perhaps he was wrong to seek to break the elf’s resolve.

He had reaped the whirlwind, and now there was no escape.

Luthien unclasped her hands, and with her right hand lifted to the skies, and her left hand pointing down to him, bound by Huan, she brought forth her power and uttered from her lips a speech of condemnation.

_“O Demon Dark, O Phantom vile of foulness wrought, of lies and guile,”_ Her brunette hair swirled about her, and her eyes…

Her eyes were dark spheres entrapped in white suns as she called down her curse upon him.

_“…here thou shalt die, thy spirit roam quaking back to thy master’s home, his scorn and fury to endure;”_

_“Thee he will in the bow’ls immure of groaning earth , and in a hole everlastingly thy naked soul shall wail and gibber!”_

More tears fell down her face, and her voice quavered as she spoke, but her righteous power was undeniable, and her spirit was bent towards his destruction. She was to cast him down, and smite him there and then. She was fury, and light, and fire of Eru. Not even the Lanterns could justly match the brightness of the aura emanating from her, burning into his soul, burning him, immolating his spirit and making him writhe like a worm in her heavenly snare.

_Damn her….damn her…!!!_

But roar and flail and claw and translate and scream as he did, there was no escape. Hers was the wrath of heaven, and he the lowly fallen angel had brought this sentence upon himself.

_Too much…power…too much…Master…save me!!!_

_“This shall be!”_ Luthien cried, her voice great and mighty and distorted and powerful. _“unless the keys thou render me of thy black fortress, and the spell that bindeth stone to stone thou tell, and speak the words of opening!”_

Huan’s jaws did not abate, Luthien’s eyes bore into his soul and he _saw his beginning, his end, his creation, his unmaking…not die…not die, never die, my life, my soul, my precious…live…live…flee and hide and grow small until I live again, till the ring is joined to the master’s hand again…live!_

“CCCCUUUUURRRRRRSSSSSEEEE YYYYOOOOUUUUUU!!!!”

“The sun is rising, Thu. Make your choice. Surrender the fortress and escape with your life, or die right here and let the light of Eru burn you to cinders. Master of Wolves, surrender the fortress or be slain here and now!”

_What?_

_The sun…rising?_

_But it was the evening not hours ago…how can it be dawn already?!_

_An illusion? What magic was this? Magic that I did not know!_

_Divine power that I could not conceive!_

“How…the dawn…how is this possible?” He helplessly implored his tormentor.

“I am Luthien of Melian.” She answered. “And I am of the blood of the heavenly Maiar and of the earthly fey, of the elfkind. Our creation was sung of to reflect and give honour to the old lords of creation, and you, Mairon, servant of Morgoth, are the flawed being, with hate in your heart, and sin twisting your vision to see only what you wish to see. Now…make your choice, and free the prisoners and my love or suffer eternally by the judgement of Mandos!”

_How dare she utter my first name! How dare she!!!_

“Yyyaaahrrhghh!” Thu knew that he now had no choice. He had looked past Huan’s ears and seen, damn his eyes, that the clouds were parting, and the sky was brightening, paling, and blooming.

The sun’s rays would be out and he needed to retreat to the safety of his shadows…before he was burned and incinerated.

“I…” The words were stone in his throat, but fear for his own life, not for the impending punishment Morgoth would deal upon him, spurred him. “I…yield…Tol-In-Gaurhoth…my fortress, and the prisoners inside…are yours…Luthien of Doriath.”

And the shame he felt, crushing down upon him, entombing him, chained him and scourged him like a balrog’s fiery whip upon his back.

He had shamed Morgoth in his defeat, and now, his hold and his vision of perfection was now one step behind.

Such a slight was unforgivable to his master, and Thu felt himself pale at the horrors Morgoth would make him face for such an overwhelming failure.

“Then depart these lands, and never return! Begone, servant of Morgoth, and never again trouble my lands or my people, ever again!” Luthien commanded.

Then she looked away and by her fell, divine power, a mystery that Thu would take to his grave not knowing the finer secrets, and rage bitterly for the rest of his days for his ignorance, the first rays of sun rose and crested over the hill, and bathed his tower in cursed sunlight.

Luthien moved aside from him, and her eyes were upon his fortress, and opening her arms wide, her blue folded sleeves extended like a sapphire winged bird, she gazed intently on the fortress as more of the dawn’s light fell upon it.

“Hold on…Beren…” She tearfully whispered. “Hold on…”

_Disgusting…_

Then she opened her mouth, and began to sing.

The symphony, the harmonic melody, that played out like a soft trumpet from her mouth, scraped like fetters of his spine, and his skulls throbbed with the rising ebbs and falls of the nightingale harp song that fluttered free and true from her mouth.

The current of life, willed and real, music godly and pure that made him wish to cringe away as the orcs did from sunlight, was unceasing, rhythmic and compelling, and even in his shadowy heart, Thu felt the blade of her song slice cleanly through, brushing against the parts he never wished to feel live in his heart ever again, and even he, Thu of Wolves, was held captive by her heaven-blessed voice…

_Damn…her…_

And then, the tower cracked.

Thu turned and saw and felt it.

The crack spiralled down, stone splitting at the force of divine power, and the sun upon it was the amplified rays of Luthien’s song, and Luthien herself was bathed now in a column of light that Thu’s eyes watered to behold.

Was this how mortals felt when gazing on the unthinkable. The divine. Instead of fear, their minds simply left them and they became stupefied at the beauty so pure that they simply did not know how to react.

The tower cracked, and the stone walls cracked and followed suit, and all the walls and spires and halls of his fortress were under the destruction of Luthien’s song, for it had become the doom for darkness to reside in daylight, now that Luthien’s power was upon it.

And Thu felt his horror rise as the tower rent and crumpled, and the unceasing tide of her song washed like a tide against the sorcery of Tol-In-Gaurhoth, and washed it away, eroding it to nothing, and left it bare. The fortress folded in and like a puppet with its strings cut, it fell, wall after wall, and chamber after chamber.

The bats roosting inside screamed and took flight. And following them, Thu caught a glimpse of a pale skinned, black haired and red eyed lithe woman with bat like wings, flapping desperately to escape and seek the safety of shadow.

The sun blinded her and as she squealed and wheeled away, a rock caught her head and she fell, in pattern with the fall of his fortress, and that, Thu knew, was the end of Thuringweithil, the vampire mistress and Woman of Secret Shadows.

Thu could not summon the words to curse Luthien, nor will himself to look away as his fortress was torn down in front of him.

Then there was a clamour of howls, as the wolves inside soon realised their horrific fate. Those that could escape clambered out over the hills behind the fortress, scrambling over each other. The rest who were closest to the front, hurried to the bridge, and Thu’s shame was compounded as he saw their eyes meet his, and behold his defeat at the hands of a wolfhound.

“The master is defeated!”

“The master is dead! Thu our master is dead!”

“Huan of Valinor! Huan of Orome! Fear him! Fear his jaws! Our master has been struck down!”

And in their hasty bid to escape, yet avoid Huan, they chose to leap, werewolves and wolf alike, down the rocky cliff-face and into the streams below.

Some made it and splashed bodily into the frothing water, while others dashed their skulls against the jutting edges of the cliff face and fell limply and unceremoniously to the bottom.

Howling and baying, the wolves of Thu jumped to their deaths, and Thu cursed them for their treachery.

“Damn you…cowards! Come and rip this hound and the elf to pieces! Free me! Help me! Save your master! Save me! Save me!”

But his cries were drowned out by Huan choking his neck, and the teeth breaking the skin, and the howling of the wolves as they fought and bit and tumbled over themselves to hurl themselves to their ignoble deaths.

And Thu knew then that his cause was lost.

The fortress continued to collapse, and though Thu would have relished in the thought of Luthien unintentionally killing her lover in her bid to save him, he knew that the dungeons underground would be quite safe from the collapse. Beren would be trapped down there, but he would be alive and well, and Luthien would have Huan to assist her in removing the stones and reuniting with her lover.

Weak, weary, dehydrated, enthralled. Stinking of urine and bile and waste and sweat, but alive nonetheless.

The last of the wolves cried their last and howled their last, and then leapt, their great brown and lean and dark shapes hurtling down towards their deaths, and dust billowed out from the entrance of his ruined fortress as the walls collapsed and the last of the great walls of his fortress caved in on themselves, as the suns rays illuminated it whole.

And with that the fortress of Tol-In-Gaurhoth was destroyed.

All was silent for a moment, and only the sound of stone breaking on stone could be heard, the gentle sigh of dust settling on the ruined fortress.

Then a patter of lowly feet, a chorus of moans, cries and cheers, heralded from the shattered, sun lit ruins, and from the place came his prisoners.

He had other prisoners who he had tormented with his wolves alongside Beren and Felagand’s war band, and his heart sickened at the sight of the prisoners young and old, of shades of dun and light, pale and dark, covered in soot and dirt and haggard in appearance, raised up their voices in cheer and praise to the heavens as they limped past Huan and Luthien, touching her shoulder, though her eyes never left the fortress and her chest rose and fell from the exhaustion of the Song of the Dawn that had worked through her, and the children brushed and stroked at Huan’s fur as they went past.

And Thu was sick to his core to see the innocent go free.

He could not kill them out of spite, nor disembowel the enchanted wolfhound who bound him so.

All he could do now…

…was escape.

“_Bhadur u scara zna_.” He hissed, choked even more as his flesh warped and tore and broke completely.

His wolf form was his gateway form, and in the event of his unlikely and utter defeat, he needed it in order to reach his last form that he had no choice to resort to, to ensure his cowardly escape. There was no desire in him for glory now. Only survival to live and plot another day.

The prisoners backed away and screamed, holding each other in fear, and Huan’s eyes widened then narrowed as his choice to kill was made for him. Adjusting his stance so that Thu’s shifting body would not unbalance him with its change in size, Huan would not let Thu escape as he was now, or allow him to harm any more innocents. Thu had only seconds left.

“_Bhadur u…_” Huan’s teeth crunched into his throat. “_… lugat zna!_”

With a final hiss, Thu gurgled his last as Huan bit and tore out his throat with a final rip and tear of his throat. Gore splattered and blood spurted freely from ruptured arteries. The warhound's face and chest was sprayed with dark crimson red from his brutal finishing work, and Thu collapsed his head back, sighing his last.

And the dark lord felt the darkness take him as life left his lungs through his torn throat.

Then, his eyes opened, and within the shell of his wolf corpse, he extended his wings, ripping out of his hunched back, and kicked into his ribcage.

His giant wolf form was now a prison, and his black small-furred, skinny vampire form kicked and screeched and finally, burst bloodily and free from his corpse.

Before Huan could react and snap at his legs, Thu wheeled and screeched in the air, and then sped off to the woods as fast as his desperate wings as he could.

Bat-like in face and vast of pinion, Thu flapped the wolf blood off of his body that sullied his membranes and, with a rasping hiss, as Huan’s teeth had pierced so deep they opened his bat form’s throat as well, he sped to the shade of trees, hissing and screeching as the warm rays of the sun seared into his flesh.

* * *

And from this day to his last, Thu knew that such a humiliating defeat would be one unrivalled compared to all of his defeats. He had discovered a setback in his quest for immortality and knowledge, and in his bitter contempt and desire to avenge his disrupted progress, he vowed to poison the next place that he settled in.

He would head to Taur-Na-Fuin, and there he would nurse his wounds in defeat and build a newer and darker lair for himself with the trees of the forest as cover, so dense. There he would dwell as a vampire, and there he would pollute the lands with unbridled, mind-breaking terror, and no light would enter into the forest so long as he dwelt there.

Thu would abandon his old name, and become known as Sauron, and all other names he would adopt would be mere titles compared to his true name, that would later inspire terror in his later bid to conquer the realms of Arda. His power diminished, Sauron would not be seen or heard from again, until the Second Age.

And so ended the reign and enthralment of Thu, known also as Gorthaur the Cruel and as Sauron, the Master of Wolves who ruled in the land that was the first Minas Tirith, formerly the tower that guarded the Pass of Sirion from the forces of Morgoth, which became under Sauron’s rule Tol-In-Gaurhoth, the Isle of Werewolves. Upon Luthien’s challenge and Huan’s heroic fight, Thu’s terrible reign in the lands of Beleriand and his torment of the good people there. His evil in Beleriand with his plague of werewolves was brought to a stunning end at the hands of an unlikely hero, led by a woman determined to save her lover from his clutches.

Though he would go on to bring about the fall of Akallabeth, corrupting the Numenoreans who dwelt in that kingdom and later, after his fall at the hands of Elendil and Gil-Galad, use his One Ring- which he had forged in the fires of Mount Doom and bound his malevolent essence to it- to ensnare King Isildur in his thrall and ensure his own escape into the hands of Gollum, and later Bilbo Baggins, his is but a cautionary tale. A tale that evil no matter how great or ambitious or sadistic or malevolent in its desire, cannot endure, and good and righteousness and conviction to resist and cast down evil to the bitter end will always triumph over the ill prospers of evil.

Sauron of course would not realise this, until his tower of Barad Dur collapsed upon the destruction of his one ring, and in those moments before his spectral lidless flaming eye form obliterated into nothingness, Sauron would cast a retrospective look back upon his past and his evil deeds, and ponder if maybe, just maybe, would he have done more and prospered more, had he not followed Morgoth, like the dog that he was.

* * *

** _The End._ **

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again Tolkien Fans!
> 
> I'm taking a break from my Game of Thrones fanfiction writing after finishing and tweaking the Wolf for a two chapter retelling of the fight between Huan, the Warhound of the Valinor who assists Beren and Luthien in their adventures together, and Thu, the Werewolf who would soon later become known as Sauron the Dark Lord.
> 
> The writing of Thu in this chapter is intended to be comedic with some dark humour. The story itself of Beren's rescue from the dungeons of Tol-in-Gaurhoth in which the dark lord Thu proceeds to get his ass handed to him by a giant wolfhound is quite amusing. Probably one of his most humiliating defeats that he would have struggled to live down.
> 
> The next chapter will be quite dark as a dialogue scene is added when Thu will threaten Luthien, while Huan hesitates and has recoiled in hesitation. The fight I promise between them will be quite epic.
> 
> Thu's expression of concern, ironically, is inspired by the dungeons and dragons meme with a drawing of a skeleton warlock pressing his hands together in front of his teeth with the caption-
> 
> When you're a boss but you see a bard walking towards you seductively- followed by the asterisk caption above the warlock saying – *CONCERN*.
> 
> Next chapter should hopefully be up this weekend!
> 
> Love to my fans!


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